How You Get Paid At ASCAP

ASCAP receives payment for public performances of songs and compositions by negotiating license fees with the users of music (radio, TV, cable, bars, clubs, restaurants, shopping malls, concert halls and promoters, web sites, airlines, orchestras, etc.) and distributing these monies to members whose works were performed.

ASCAP pays directly and fairly. ASCAP is guided by a "follow the dollar" principle in the design of its payment system. In other words, the money collected from television stations is paid out to members for performances of their works on television; the money collected from radio stations is paid out for radio performances, and so on. ASCAP tracks music use on these and other media and live venues to determine which music has been performed, and the appropriate writers and publishers to be paid.

The value of each performance is determined by several factors, among them the amount of license fees collected in a medium (television, cable, radio, etc.), the type of performance (visual vocal, background music, theme song, jingle, etc.) and the economic significance of the licensee (how much a station pays us).

There are billions of performances licensed by ASCAP each year. ASCAP is committed to paying our members for these performances fairly, accurately and efficiently. ASCAP collects and distributes more money in performance royalty income than any other organization and our payment system is by far the fairest and most objective in the U.S.

Because ASCAP is owned and governed by its members, we have a strong commitment to maximizing payments to members. In most situations, you will find that ASCAP pays more than our competitors over the life of a copyright.

As a condition of ASCAP membership, all writer and publisher members agree that, even in work-for-hire situations, the writer and not the employer will be paid the writer's share of ASCAP performing rights royalties. In addition, ASCAP's Articles of Association provide that, with only very limited exceptions unrelated to work-for-hire situations, writer's royalties "shall not be sold or otherwise disposed of." Hence, subject only to those very limited exceptions, ASCAP will not honor an irrevocable assignment of writer's royalties but will, notwithstanding such an assignment, pay writer's royalties only and directly to the writer member-in-interest.

We hope this information will help you to understand the overall design of the ASCAP payment system and the many factors that go into calculating how much a particular performance is worth, as it explains the steps from performance to royalty check.

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